Man meets daughter after 48 years

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/erie/man-meets-daughter-after-48-years
CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WIVB) - A Western New York man is getting acquainted with his 48 year-old daughter for the first time Thursday evening.
Tom Pritchard is a Vietnam vet who struggles with devastating health problems after his exposure to Agent Orange.  His daughter, Heidi Frederick, was born after a high school romance in Horseheads, NY involving Pritchard and a teenage girlfriend. When the mother became pregnant, she was sent to Buffalo to have her baby, Heidi.
Pritchard says he was devastated that the baby was put up for adoption and joined the service shortly after Heidi was born.
"Got out of the Navy, came home, and I thought about her just about every day. I really wanted my daughter back," he recalled.
Frederick's adoptive parents eventually moved to California, where she grew up and lives today.
"Growing up, I always wondered, I always wanted to know something.  But it was a closed adoption so the records are sealed," Frederick said.
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WHY IS THIS STORY IMPORTANT? Tom Pritchard struggles with devastating health problems after his exposure to Agent Orange - his offspring have a right to know in the event they or their children have Agent Orange related health issues.